Vets to Drones was founded in Raleigh roughly three years ago and provides training to veterans and military servicemembers to become licensed drone pilots, and when necessary, aid in disaster response and search and rescue operations.
"We're all veterans, we're all military, some of us current, some of us former, and we're across the country," said Tony Canaday, an Indiana National Guardsman who works as Region 5 Director for Vets to Drones.
Canaday knows what it's like responding to catastrophic natural disasters after helping in recovery efforts following Hurricanes Helene and Milton last year. Now, he and other volunteers with Vets to Drones are doing what they can to help in Texas.
"Just because they don't wear the uniform anymore. They're all, we're all, will jump up and serve and continue to serve our community," Canaday said.
Canaday is helping coordinate the organization's response in Texas, where extreme flooding has killed at least 110 people, with more than 170 still unaccounted for. The technology that Vets to Drones uses can provide a unique perspective to help with disaster response, gathering information and taking some of the burden off the first responders who are working furiously to find survivors.
"They can see exactly what our drone is seeing in real time and can give those commanders and incident commanders real-time data and a perspective of what is happening on the ground," Canaday said.
Vets to Drones is partnering with two other nonprofits as its volunteers jump in to help in Texas. For servicemembers such as Canaday, their efforts mean leaving their own families behind -- but he said it was all worth it seeing the effects of their hard work.
"When you see the effort of what you're doing and the impact that it's had, having on the community and it's saving lives, it's changing lives -- you can't recreate that feeling," he said.
Chris Lewis, the founder of Vets to Drones, said the group also has a team standing by to help with the flooding in central North Carolina caused by Tropical Storm Chantal.